This is an improvement over the pizza cutting and eating tool of U.S. Pat. No. Des. 425,376. That patent shows a fork device with a pizza cutting wheel mounted on the lower side thereof immediately and rearwardly adjacent the tongs of the fork. An arcuate guard member extends over the upper periphery of the cutting wheel as it projects through a slot in the fork.
The device of the above design patent failed to provide protection to the hands and the finger of the user from possible injury to the rotating wheel at a position beneath the fork. In addition, the design patent failed to disclose a convenient, economical, and efficient way of mounting the wheel guard on the fork.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a pizza cutting and eating tool which is completely safe to use by the user, and which can be economically and efficiently manufactured. These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.
A pizza cutter and eating tool has a fork portion, an elongated handle connected to a rearward end of the fork portion. A cutting wheel mounting area is located in the handle adjacent the rearward end of the fork portion. An elongated longitudinal slot is located in the mounting area.
Cutting wheel mounting tabs have upper ends secured to a center portion of the slot and they extend downwardly therefrom below the fork. A pizza cutting tool is rotatably mounted on the mounting tabs and an upward periphery of the wheel extends partially through the elongated slot.
An arcuate elongated guard member extends from a forward end of the slot, thence upwardly and over a portion of a periphery of the cutting wheel, and thence extends downwardly through a rearward end of the elongated slot, and thence outwardly and rearwardly from an adjacent portion of the periphery of the cutting wheel below the elongated slot.